Reported suicide attempts among New Mexico teenagers drop

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - The number of New Mexico teenagers who reported attempting suicide in 2013 has decreased by more than a third from a decade earlier, but the rate of young people in the state who kill themselves still remains above the national average, according to a report from health officials.

The New Mexico Department of Health's Youth Risk & Resiliency Survey found that 9.4 percent of high school students reported attempting suicide in 2013, down from 14.5 percent in 2003, reported the Albuquerque Journal (http://bit.ly/1J7KIvV ) Monday.

State officials said the 35 percent drop in reported suicide attempts can be attributed to suicide-prevention programs, which have been implemented on school campuses statewide.

"There's been a national trend of decreasing risk behaviors in a lot of these areas," state epidemiologist Dan Green said, but more work remains. "New Mexico's youth suicide rate is still high."

New Mexico's suicide rate among people ages 15 to 24 was 18.7 per 100,000 people, compared to the national rate of 11.1. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, New Mexico in 2013 ranked seventh in the country in suicides among young people.

Yolanda Cordova, director of the agency's office of school and adolescent health, said the state's suicide prevention programs are supported by nearly 500 school nurses, 460 school health assistants and personnel at 54 school-based health centers.